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Ex-guard admits falsifying jail records before Sandra Bland's death, lawyer says
NY Daily News ^ | 22 July 2016 | Keri Blackinger

Posted on 07/23/2016 11:51:49 AM PDT by Theoria

A former Texas jail guard recently admitted to falsifying log entries to show he checked on Sandra Bland an hour before her death when in fact he didn't, according to a lawyer for Bland's family.

But Waller County officials say that's not what jailer Rafael Zuniga's testimony said at all.

"Numerous depositions have been taken in the case involving dozens of hours of testimony," lawyer Larry Simmons said, according to the Houston Chronicle.

"It is a gross miscarriage of justice and a misrepresentation for any party to cherry-pick or mischaracterize a small portion of that testimony, and take it out of context."

Bland's in-custody death last year sparked protests across the country as angry activists demanded answers.

The 28-year-old was in the middle of moving from Texas to the Chicago area when she was collared during a troubling traffic stop when she forgot to put on her turn signal. The arresting officer claimed Bland was combative, but dashcam footage called the cop's version of events into question.

(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: jail; police; sandrabland; texas
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To: Newbomb Turk

“...what they were really doing was wanting to look in my back seat.”

I have a friend who is a retired LEO. HIs advice, NEVER let a cop into your home or your car without a warrant to do so, and if they do it anyway prosecute them! Every cop wants to see your $hit, most especially in your car. The less you say to any one of them, the safer you will be!


41 posted on 07/23/2016 2:14:35 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: chris37
How about you go out in your car and make some turns without signal in front of police cars, and see what happens as a result.

I have no idea where you live, but I can guarantee that where I am in Maryland, where I lived in Texas, and where I lived in California, people were NOT, as a rule, pulled over for not using turn signals. People fail to use them ALL THE TIME. One thing I've noticed is that if the front car in a left turn lane has the signal on, the rest of the cars probably do, too. But if the front one doesn't, none of the others do, either.

When I'm on the freeway, I typically only signal when I have already started to change lanes. That is because when I learned to drive in the San Francisco Bay Area, I quickly learned that signalling that you want to change lanes is the quickest way to get the people in the next lane to close the gap that you wanted to enter.

The one thing I see people get pulled over for is speeding. The roads I use are actually pretty well patrolled by police. I see several of them every day, waiting for people to speed. And I mean really speed--they overlook if you are going just a couple miles over the limit. Which I do. In a 55 MPH zone, I drive 55-60, everyone passes me, I never get pulled over.

“Yes, I really am dumb enough to believe that when an article says”

Yes, apparently you are.

Immune to sarcasm, are you? When an article says something, I believe that the article says what it says. It certainly does not say something else. Wikipedia quotations aside, that article STILL says that she was pulled over (and brought in) for failing to use the turn signal. And, as I originally pointed out, I suspected that the situation was more complicated than the article said. The Wikipedia article actually proves my point, that the article was NOT the whole story and that she did indeed do something besides fail to use the turn signal.

And you have issues... you seem obsessed with turn signal usage.

42 posted on 07/23/2016 2:16:11 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: Safetgiver

“Can you buy a car with optional turn signals in your state? This needs to be enforced 3000% more, in my opinion.”

Absolutely true! Here in CA with all our illegals now with DL’s there is an epidemic of changing lanes, etc., without signalling that has reached a dangerous level, particularly when it’s accompanied by excessive speed. Probably accounts for a large percentage of accidents. And the one’s who are worse than the Mexicans are the a$$holes here from the ME!


43 posted on 07/23/2016 2:18:16 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: trisham

I don’t really know how else to deal with someone being that dumb. Honestly, don’t even know how to proceed.

Nothing she says is accurate. She tells me that I am saying things that I didn’t say, but that she said. She seems to indicate that because she thinks something, the world should proceed accordingly, but in reality the world proceeds in the exact opposite manner.

It’s really annoying.


44 posted on 07/23/2016 2:18:17 PM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
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To: vette6387

On my daily commute, it’s the “magic forcefield” turn signal users who are more of a problem. They pop on the turn signal and immediately begin to change lanes. You’re just supposed to give way, they’re coming over and that’s all there is to it.


45 posted on 07/23/2016 2:22:13 PM PDT by RegulatorCountry
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To: napscoordinator

I know who she is. She didn’t comply, so he was able to arrest her for failure to follow a clear and lawful order. If a cop gives an order, you follow it there. If you think the order was unreasonable, there are processes in place to complain. The time to complain is not during the stop itself.


46 posted on 07/23/2016 2:24:18 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
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To: chris37

You have freepmail, friend.


47 posted on 07/23/2016 2:24:19 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: exDemMom

Okay, whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URAZ3umt7v0

She clearly runs the stop sign at 1:16 of the dashcam video, right in front of the cop car. What was he supposed to do? Nothing? Let her go because she’s black?

And why are we even talking about this? The officer had not one thing to do with this woman’s death.

If you want to know why a person was arrested, read their arrest report.

Or be lied to by the media.

I’m sure one source is just as good as every other source. Right?

Right.


48 posted on 07/23/2016 2:30:38 PM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
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To: RegulatorCountry

“On my daily commute, it’s the “magic forcefield” turn signal users who are more of a problem. “

Yes, you’re right on that score! Had that in spades trying to get home last night from the SF Airport. And it excalates when traffic gets congested. Most of the time, I drive a 4WD vehicle, because I can see better and it’s intimidating to the a$$holes in their Priuses and other useless $hitboxes!


49 posted on 07/23/2016 2:31:11 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: exDemMom

“That is because when I learned to drive in the San Francisco Bay Area, I quickly learned that signalling that you want to change lanes is the quickest way to get the people in the next lane to close the gap that you wanted to enter.”

You would have loved the ride home to Danville yesterday afternoon from SFO.


50 posted on 07/23/2016 2:37:45 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: Safetgiver

Right, changing directions, not changing lanes. I recall this because I was telling the Michigan Trooper about Troy Michigan cops, weaving thru traffic, putting the public at risk, to do “click it or ticket”. While chasing the drivers down, they were not using their turn signals. The word from the State Police was clear, no turn signal needed (legally speaking) when changing lanes, only direction.


51 posted on 07/23/2016 3:27:43 PM PDT by Mark was here (Isn't attacking Trump's ex-girlfriends a "war on women"?)
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To: Theoria

These deaths are always disturbing


52 posted on 07/23/2016 3:35:41 PM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Safetgiver

Pull Over: Practice of pretext police stops under fire - Post and Courier
http://www.postandcourier.com/article/20150801/PC16/150809965


53 posted on 07/23/2016 3:36:52 PM PDT by ilovesarah2012
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To: chris37

Okay, let me take this step by step.

The wiki article you quoted, and this youtube video both verify my initial conclusion after reading the article, which I clearly stated in my first post: that something else is going on here.

My reason for that assessment is because people do not get pulled over for failing to use a turn signal. It may be an auxiliary reason stated on a ticket, but it is not a primary reason. (Unless, I suppose, an officer desperately needs to make his ticket quota. But around here, the quotas can easily be met by ticketing speeders.)

Yet the article stated that that was the reason she was pulled over.

Again, the references that YOU found clearly indicate that the unused turn signal was NOT the reason she was pulled over. The real reason was that she ran a stop sign—something that will get anyone pulled over (including me; the only traffic ticket I have ever received was for running a stop sign in October, 1979).

But the article stated that she was pulled over for failing to use a turn signal. And implied that she was booked into jail for failing to use a turn signal.

Now, instead of knee jerk reactions over my restating exactly what the article said, try, for a moment, to consider why the writer of that article chose to misrepresent the incident as her being pulled over and booked in jail for the relatively common and minor offense of failing to use the turn signal.

Could it be that the writer hid facts in order to fit the narrative that blacks are unfairly singled out for persecution by police officers? Could it be that the writer is trying to create another Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray, “gentle giant” Michael Brown? Could it be that the writer is trying to incite more race riots?

Think about it.

The story that a *black* woman was pulled over, arrested, and sent to jail for failing to use her turn signal, something that millions of people do every day—yes, in front of police, even—with no consequence is outrageous.

However, the full story that she was pulled over for running a stop sign—and that the non-use of the signal was included among her offenses—and that she assaulted the officer—well, the story isn’t all that outrageous now, is it?

So the only real story here is that the police station should have had her under suicide watch, but didn’t.

You need to learn that what is left out of articles is as important as what is put in. And stop being obsessed about the unimportant details.


54 posted on 07/23/2016 5:37:33 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: vette6387
You would have loved the ride home to Danville yesterday afternoon from SFO.

Haha, I'm sure I would have. I remember the traffic around there was hellish in the late 1970s, and I can only imagine that it's gotten worse.

So I gave up Bay Area traffic for National Capital Region traffic. The driving habits are different here... but the traffic is no better. At least I do not have to go to DC or Baltimore all that often. The beltways and the freeways feeding into them are horrible.

55 posted on 07/23/2016 5:46:36 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: exDemMom; ExTexasRedhead
“So I gave up Bay Area traffic for National Capital Region traffic.”

So you have both untenable traffic and high humidity! SF certainly looks better now that the ugly PAT BROWN double decked freeway to nowhere on the Embarcadero is gone (one of the good things that the Loma Prieta Earthquake did), but it did serve a useful purpose in feeding commute traffic onto the Bay Bridge. The problem SF has is that it has a booming economy, thanks in great measure to the Peninsula and Silicon Valley megabusinesses. Companies like FB and Google are now providing executive bus transportation to and from SF for their “wealthy” employees who want to live there. Today a Studio Apartment in SF goes for $4,000 per month and they are building them as fast as they can. All of Third Street and Potereo Hill have been completely “rebuilt” and all of the ugly publc housing (together with it's “residents”) is gone! In the 70’s I worked on Jerrold Avenue (near the Produce Market). We found dead bodies in our alley. Now all of that is gone, and with Candlestick Park razed, it's only a matter of time for that property to be redeveloped along with the area between it and India Basin. All that said, I wouldn't live there if you paid me. SF’s “beauty” is now only skin deep!

56 posted on 07/23/2016 5:57:23 PM PDT by vette6387
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To: vette6387
Today a Studio Apartment in SF goes for $4,000 per month and they are building them as fast as they can.

Yow.

I pay less than that on the mortgages for both of my houses. I have a nice house near the Chesapeake, a short distance outside of our historic downtown, with a large deck. My other house, which is rented out now, is in a lovely small town a short distance from national battlefields. It's a great area for history and Civil War buffs.

I have never understood why someone would pay top dollar to live in an apartment the size of my living room, just to live in a city. Incredible.

57 posted on 07/23/2016 6:49:01 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: Timpanagos1
The issue is now, how many millions of dollars Waller County tax payers will pay to the family.

Maybe the problem is these stupid tickets to make money for a city or town when there is real crime in America that the police should be stopping.

58 posted on 07/23/2016 8:01:44 PM PDT by Lady Heron
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To: BenLurkin
Have never heard of someone being pulled over for not using a turn signal.

It's a regular event in the People's Democratic Republic of Illinois.

59 posted on 07/23/2016 8:03:26 PM PDT by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: BenLurkin

I got pulled over for not using my turn signal four months ago in a small TX town.


60 posted on 07/23/2016 11:23:17 PM PDT by HonkyTonkMan
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